Holiday tablet sales expected to rise 60%

SAN FRANCISCO—Sales of media tablets are expected to grow 60 percent this holiday season compared with last year, according to a financial research and banking firm that this week released its inaugural "tablet tracker" report estimating production of top-selling tablets.

Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, wrote in a report circulated Thursday (Nov. 29) that the projected 60 percent year-over-year growth is "impressive, considering the iPad as already very popular and widely available one year ago." Berger's report also concluded that non-Apple tablets are starting to become a meaningful part of the tablet market and that Qualcomm Inc., Broadcom Corp. and Atmel Corp. are the three chip vendors benefitting most from the tablet craze.

FBR estimates that Apple will ship 21 million iPads in the fourth quarter, up from 15 million in the fourth quarter of last year. For the year, FBR estimates that Apple will ship 67.7 million tablets, up from 46.5 million in 2011. The firm also estimates that Apple will ship 5.5 million units of the recently introduced iPad mini in the fourth quarter, giving it a total of 7.5 million units for the year.

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Berger wrote that iPad mini is gaining momentum after a somewhat muted launch. He said FBR expects the mini will boost Apple's tablet market share to peak at 64 percent in the second quarter of 2013, up from 58 percent in the third quarter of this year.

"However, we expect that by the end of 2013, the constant deluge of cheaper Android-based tablets will begin to chip away at Apple's market share," Berger wrote.

No, I was focusing on precisely the right thing. That tablet sales will increase is expected and is not as interesting to me as testing how much effort it takes to get PC constricted media outlets to admit the Reason for the tablet buying.
Now if I could only find an old Aramaic word for Christmas so that people can't just substitute an "X".
Oh well, thanks for playing. It's been fun.